Raindrops keep falling on my head

That's Salvador's favorite song to drunkenly serenade the building with most mornings.

I think I jinxed the rain, saying we only get about an hour! It rained all night last night and through this morning, so much so that BPP cancelled classes.

Happy hump day! Tonight I'm making spicy orange ginger mackerel :)

I feel the earth move under my feet

Another earthquake in Costa Rica about a half hour ago. This time it ranked at 6.6 on the Richter scale, and I could definitely feel it here in San Juan. Everything is fine though, no worries here.

Update as far as life more generally... The last two weeks of school are upon us! It's wild how short the semester is for the Barrio Planta Project, especially since classes are only three days a week. I'm not sure when regular school ends, but I think BPP schedules around them, so I assume it's the same. My classes are getting steadily better (as long as one certain kid isn't there in the morning class..) and I feel that we've made significant progress through the curriculum. I still think its hard to really improve at a foreign language - especially speaking - unless you practice WAY more than three times a week, but I can't do much about that after all! Rainy season has finally begun, as well. It's not bad, and it's very much a relief to locals, who were worried about drought in the spring if the rain didn't come. Supposedly it rains to about 12 hours a day in a normal year, so it seems this year will be dryer than most, anyway. We get maybe an hour a day.

Happily teaching, spending time with Emile, cooking, and enjoying this beautiful country! I'm looking forward to Emile's mom's visit in a couple weeks, too.

Wooooo!

I deadlifted 135 lbs today... 12 times! That's using the 45 lb plates. Can't believe how much stronger I am, and how cool it is to have a consistent progression I've moved from and am moving toward. It's like finally getting that triple pirouette after months of practice and knowing, given patience and hard work, that the fourth turn will come soon enough :)

View from front of school

Lazy rainy day

Stomach pains are a decidedly unpleasant way to start the day. I was up half the night with them, too, but thank goodness they've gone away for the most part. And I called into work asking for the day off, so Emile and I have been making up for the lack of sleep with reading and doing a whole lot of nothing.

Good news: I got my visa renewed! Good for another 90 days down here ;) Don't worry, though, I'm starting to get a little homesick. I miss being able to do my random art/museum excursions, and I miss music other than the15-song playlist this country has on repeat. Nicaragua is wonderful - a beautiful landscape, welcoming people, fun atmosphere... But I don't think I could live in this beach town for too long. Or maybe I just need a vacation (as if I'm not living in the ideal vacation spot anyway)! There are still several things I want to see and do, like going to the (in)famously sprawling market in Marsella, maybe volcano boarding, maybe go back to Grenada to take more pictures so y'all can see the city through my eyes! Ps some pictures are up on my google plus site. Go check them out. I need to add more - there was a parade that I got a few good shots of on September 15, and I need to take more in general. But the ones up on the site include a couple cute ones of my students :)

Emile's birthday is tomorrow, and he's letting me make him a cake! I'm excited... I think I'm gonna get us lobster and octopus for dinner, too. Go crazy!